OW-OER is off and running!

Phase One is nearly complete. Though we’re still missing official outcomes from a few schools, we have some learning outcome data from every public higher education organization in Oregon. Currently, these are listed on our ThingLink map visual on the Course Outcomes page. A single document aligning outcomes will be part of the final project, but there should be a draft of this by the end of the calendar year.

Just in the collection of this data, I’ve found that the landscape for beginning-level writing courses is changing in Oregon. Many schools are pursuing combinations of traditional courses, moving from a standard Writing 90, 95, 115, 121 progression to something that allows students to move through the courses concurrently (or as one, as the Writing 97 and Writing 98 projects at Lane CC and Clackamas).

This argues even more forcefully for easily accessible, open materials for use in classes, and we hope that the OER we collect and create for this project will be easily adaptable as colleges change curriculum.

If you’re currently using OER, let me know! We’ll be sending notices to departments around the state at the beginning of November, but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s developing or using OER now!